For weeks, Republicans have questioned the wisdom of closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. President Barack Obama plans to transfer the approximately 230 remaining detainees to other countries or to prisons in the United States. Responding to the Republicans, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters on June 16, 2009, that it’s important to consider Obama’s plans in context with the overall number of releases in the past seven years.

“Some 500 detainees were released from Guantanamo during the Bush administration,” Hoyer said. We wondered if he was correct.

Indeed, government documents indicate more than 500 detainees were released or transferred from Guantanamo while George W. Bush was president. A White House executive order issued on the second day of Obama’s presidency said, ” The federal government has moved more than 500 such detainees from Guantánamo, either by returning them to their home country or by releasing or transferring them to a third country. “That’s backed up by a fact sheet from the military task force that runs the detention camp, which says 520 detainees had been released or transferred by March 2009……

JERUSALEM — Israel and Hamas announced an agreement on Tuesday to exchange more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for an Israeli soldier held captive in Gaza for five years, a deal brokered by Egypt that seemed likely to shake up Middle East politics at a time when the region is immersed in turmoil. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told his nation in a live address on television that the soldier, Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit, who was captured in June 2006 at the age of 19, could be home “within days,” ending what has been widely seen in Israel as a national trauma.

I just comment at the bottom of the last post and Chips has a new one. Sure can’t keep up with Chips or this President. They are both awesome.

Wow, just wow. I have been gone all day, come home to this. What wonderful news!!!!! We have the most caring President ever. He really looks at the big picture while everyone else only looks at what they want to see.